Amanda Ford

Amanda joined TV Edwards in 2011 and is a housing supervisor. Amanda is experienced in all areas of housing law including: defending possession proceedings (rent arrears, sub-letting, succession and anti-social behaviour); applications to set aside or appeal possession orders; applications to suspend warrants of eviction; anti-social behaviour injunctions; homeless applications (reviews, appeals and Judicial Review proceedings); and disrepair claims.

Amanda is particularly interested in representing vulnerable clients in defending possession claims based on allegations of anti-social behaviour as well as representing clients with disrepair counterclaims within rent arrears possession proceedings.

Amanda has used her advocacy skills to represent tenants and occupiers as Duty Solicitor at Bow, and Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Courts.

Case examples:

Amanda acted for a client with severe mental health issues who had been stranded abroad for 20 months after he suffered from a relapse and ran out of medication. Upon his return to the UK the client’s landlord had applied to evict him (due to arrears of over £8,000) and he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Amanda managed to successfully apply to suspend the warrant of eviction against this vulnerable client and he retained his home.

After a social landlord applied for a client without capacity to be committed to prison for breach of an anti-social behaviour injunction, Amanda successfully applied for the injunction to be discharged and for the application to commit the client to prison to be dismissed.

Amanda acted for a private tenant who had been unlawfully evicted from her property with her family. Amanda successfully applied for an injunction to allow the client to resume occupation of her home. The terms of the injunction also prevented the landlord from harassing the client. Subsequently, Amanda secured £7,000 in damages for the client plus costs.

Amanda acted for a vulnerable client with severe mental health issues in temporary accommodation, where his landlord had issued possession proceedings based on rent arrears and allegations that he had breached his tenancy agreement. Amanda successfully defended the proceedings and the proceedings were dismissed after £18,278.19 was paid into the client’s rent account by the Housing Benefit Department.

Possession proceedings were issued by a social landlord based on rent arrears against a vulnerable client with very significant physical and mental health issues. Amanda acted for the client in defending the possession proceedings and in issuing a counterclaim contending that the client’s social landlord had unlawfully discriminated against him. Amanda successfully negotiated settlement of the claim and as a result the possession proceedings were dismissed and the client was awarded £2,784.42 in damages plus costs.

Amanda urgently assisted a client who was street homeless after being given less than 24 hours notice to leave his temporary accommodation provided by the Local Authority. The client’s accommodation had been terminated following allegations of anti-social behaviour. Amanda threatened Judicial Review proceedings and the client was accommodated by the Local Authority and subsequently a duty was accepted to continue to accommodate him.

Panel memberships: Housing Law Practitioners' Association (HLPA)

“I would just like to say thank you for what you have done for me and my family, we are very grateful, thank you again”

“[We] would like to say a very big thank you for being such a fantastic representative for us which was first rate and for championing our case so relentlessly and successfully…This outcome is a great weight off our minds…I wish you all continued success in the future”

“Can I take this opportunity to put on record my deepest thanks to yourself…for your support and assistance in this matter”

“I want to say thank you for what you managed to achieve for me…I want you to know what you [do] is very valuable and lots of vulnerable people need people like you to help them in most difficult times although difficult to measure the impact of what you do I would say it was immense and not measurable”